Here's your sign!

[nheller76]

Ok so we all have our, lets say unintelligent moments. I was thinking that if we shared our bumbles it might help us all feel better about our selves. Also it will make u big time mechanic types get a laugh and let others know some valuable pointers. So ill start!

So my engine had been running great for a few days then all of a sudden I start hearing a lot if value chatter and just noisy and crappy running. So I was thinking my values were not adjusted right. So I'm playing this game of crappy engine running/ value chattering chasing for about a week. Then one night I wake up at 1am with this clear as day thought! "Hey stupid, gave u checked the header bolts and see if they were loose!" Just got done on a run around the block and she sounds great! I totally earned my sign today!

So what's your story?
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[Keith Seymore]

I had just put a new engine together for my Chevelle and we (me and my engine builder Scott) were at the drag strip in Atlanta trying to get it tuned up.

It was starting kinda hard, and the idle was a bit balky, so Scott was gonna do a little tuning under the hood while I was in the driver's seat. He asked me to start it up, so I pumped the accelerator a couple times and gave it a crank....just as he leaned in over the carburetor.

Naturally - it backfired right then. Singed his right eyebrow, hair and part of his beard. Fortunately, he was fine (...and didn't take it out on me!).

He never lets me forget that. In fact, he had his helmet re-painted after that, just to rub it in.

K

[8lugnutz]

I'm going to have to go check my header bolts now..... I might even have to wear fire protective gear, but only if Keith is there to help...

[SigFTW]

I was helping by buddy change his serpentine belt on his van. I had to get to part of the belt true the wheel well so we jacked up the front, I always use jack stands for safety. I ask my friend to apply the emergency brake and we went to work. I was underneath holding the retched while he tried to brake the bolt loose. With the force of trying to remove the bolt he pushed the van off the jack right on to the jack-stands. If the stands went there I would have been crushed!!! I said to him, "DID YOU SET THE EMERGENCY BRAKE???" his response was "oh, I forgot!"

So, I got my sign for not checking the E-brake my self.

[kevinr1970]

Originally Posted by SigFTW

... I always use jack stands for safety.
... pushed the van off the jack right on to the jack-stands.

Maybe I didn't understand what you typed, but why was the vehicle still on the jack and not the stands? The stands are the first line of defence, but if I am under the vehicle, and I have room I will leave the jack in place too, but the weight should be on the stands!!!
I just don't trust these cheap stands they sell nowadays.

Also, if I am going under the vehicle I always chock the wheels. They are cheap at the parts store and takes 2 seconds to put a few in front of a wheel.

Here about a guy getting crushed under a vehicle in the news a few times a year around here.
That is not the way I want to check out, suffocating under my truck!

[sl93ex]

I was on the interstate on-ramp in my 93 Civic, when it popped and died. It would crank but wouldn't fire. I immediately thought "fuel pump". I popped the bleed screw and sprayed fuel all over myself and the hot engine.
Then I thought "no spark". I had one of those Accel see through caps, so I had my 7 yr old daughter watch for spark while I cranked (I would have done it the other way but she couldn't press down the clutch). She said she saw spark.
Unable to do any more testing by the side of the road I called for a tow ($70)
Once I get it home, testing continues. Now I'm thinking compression... so I buy a compression tester ($30). Good compression on all cylinders.
I go back to ignition and I hook up a test light to #1.. good strong spark.
I go back to fuel pressure.. I change the filter ($30).. the relay ($20).. the fuel pump ($120, but I took that back for refund).
Finally I'm thinking the ECM. So I change the notoriously fickle main relay to the ECM ($80) I borrow a good ECM from a friend...

So... Everyone remember that see through Accel cap and rotor? I decided to swap distributors, and when I pulled the cap, the rotor came off with it. Turns out the rotor broke away from the mounting ring and was only firing on #1 (And yeah, I only checked for spark at #1)

Now for the last 20 years I've always tossed my old cap and rotor in the trunk when I change them out, just incase I get a bad one...

So to recap.. $250, several days of not having my primary vehicle, much cursing and angst.

The part to fix the problem was in my trunk and took less than 5 minutes to complete.

Here's MY sign...

[SigFTW]

Originally Posted by kevinr1970

Maybe I didn't understand what you typed, but why was the vehicle still on the jack and not the stands? The stands are the first line of defence, but if I am under the vehicle, and I have room I will leave the jack in place too, but the weight should be on the stands!!!
I just don't trust these cheap stands they sell nowadays.

Also, if I am going under the vehicle I always chock the wheels. They are cheap at the parts store and takes 2 seconds to put a few in front of a wheel.

Here about a guy getting crushed under a vehicle in the news a few times a year around here.
That is not the way I want to check out, suffocating under my truck!

I left the jack (cheap car jack) in place but did not lower it until the front stand(on motor support farm) had full contact, the back stand(behind the wheel) had full contact. When he pushed (it being front wheel drive) rolled back off the car-jack (sliding on the back jack-stand) and the front of the van drop onto the front stand.

Ether way it would have slid because the brake was not set.

[mm1077]

Put on new carb, distributor, intake, etc, on my last truck. Absolutely couldn't get it to run right. Took everything apart and put it back together (took half the day). Same problem...until my buddy and I each asked the other if we'd remembered to put the plug in the back of the new carb...nope. Put plug in and ran like a champ. lesson learned, check the obvious first

[foamypirate]

I was doing the intake gaskets on my brother's girlfriend's 3.1L Buick V6, and had everything buttoned up. Moment of truth, turned the key to fire it up and...it chugged and coughed and sputtered and basically ran like hell. My brain basically went immediately to the worst scenario: I had mixed up the pushrods (different lengths) and bent valves. There goes any money I was about to make, and a whole lot of time with a helping of stress thrown in! I was pretty much beside myself. Went inside, sat on the couch and just wallowed in my misery (gross overreaction? Definitely...). Finally got the courage up to go back out to the car, and just stared at the motor while being irritated. Stared, and stared and stared...right at the brake booster hose I forget to hook up to the intake manifold! Holy crap! Plugged that sucker in, hopped in the driver seat, turned the key, and she fired right up and ran slicker' n' snot on a door knob!

[79Betty]

Pulled my dizzy carb and intake in favor of a high rise for a bit. Got it all back together go to fire it up... Crank n crank n crank... Long story short took me 3 days to figure out the hei was unplugged... Yea... Not my finest moment...
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[GM_For_Life]

I was swapping in a new throttle body on my v10 suburban because the fuel inlet had been stripped somehow. Had all the wiring for the egr and such undone, got the new tb in, hooked in the fuel lines, re-hooked everything, when all of a sudden... the two prong cable for the ignition module is gone. Just gone! I looked around the firewall, the back of the motor, it was magically gone! So my girlfriend comes over later, and she wants me to show her what I'm working on. So I say "well baby it's all very technical, you see blahblahblahblah," and she reaches over the side and grabs the missing cable. "You mean this one?" Just goes to show you, a fresh set of eyes works wonders.

Here's my sign.

[GM_For_Life]

I was swapping in a new throttle body on my v10 suburban because the fuel inlet had been stripped somehow. Had all the wiring for the egr and such undone, got the new tb in, hooked in the fuel lines, re-hooked everything, when all of a sudden... the two prong cable for the ignition module is gone. Just gone! I looked around the firewall, the back of the motor, it was magically gone! So my girlfriend comes over later, and she wants me to show her what I'm working on. So I say "well baby it's all very technical, you see blahblahblahblah," and she reaches over the side and grabs the missing cable. "You mean this one?" Just goes to show you, a fresh set of eyes works wonders.

Here's my sign.

[GM_For_Life]

Oops, double post! 'Nother sign for me.

[8lugnutz]

Well, I have to add my own here. Not square body related, but definitely "duh" related. A couple of years ago I was working on my JD tractor and pulled the radiator overflow bottle cap off of it, and then forgot to put it back on when I was done filling it. Now, hat could either be because the horses got out, or my wife called me for some "important" task, who knows, but it got left off. I seem to do this the most when I get interrupted and my one track mind jumps the track...

Tractor starts overheating in the over 100 degree weather, and I see steam from under the hood, and I jump off to see what it is. I discover it is actually coming from the overflow bottle due to the lack of cap and not the radiator or something important like that. I searched over. I searched under. I searched about, above, below, beneath, (insert any other applicable preposition here) and then I searched some more. I retraced steps where I had been mowing, thinking that even if I was lucky enough to find it, it would certainly be in pieces. I never did find it after over an hour of searching, and realizing that I was burning daylight, I did what any red blooded American would do, I improvised. I pulled out my nearly empty snuff can, dumped it out and then reached into the toolbox for some cable ties, and strapped that lid down on the overflow bottle tightly to keep the extraneous wind borne crap out of the overflow bottle. Hey, I pass by the tractor house twice a day, I'll just pick one up on my way home this week.

Two weeks go by, and I can't seem to get to the tractor parts place before they roll up the sidewalks at 5:30PM, because I commute nearly 80 miles each way, and by the time I get there they are closed (and we all know that MY tractor place near the house is the ONLY place that has them, they are sold no where else in the state!). Well, mowing season ends a couple of weeks later, and the tractor gets parked in the barn for the winter, and you know what happens next. Outta sight, outta mind right? Next season, I check the fluids, and hey, I have coolant under the radiator cap, so off I go.

All season long I have not a worry in the world on my mind about this tractor. It is particularly dusty this year, and I drag my air hose out after about a month of summer of mowing in these dry conditions. I need to blow out the dust generated throughout the season, which has found it's way into the fins in my radiator like a magnet attracts metal shavings. I start to blow it out and hear this banging sound of something hitting the radiator..... I look, and don't see a thing, so I keep at it. I keep hearing SOMETHING hitting the radiator, I don't know WHAT it is, and it doesn't sound normal....

And that is how I found my long lost overflow bottle cap, still attached to the overflow tube..... still attached to the radiator..... hanging right there in front of my face the whole time...for nearly a year...